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UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA. 



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Saturday, April 30, 1859. 

The Prudential Committee met to-day. Present, Wm. L' 
Mitchell, Chairman, Messrs. Billups, H. Cobb,- T. R. R. Cobb 
and Hull. 

After considerable conversation in relation to the University 
of Georgia, it was decided that the Chairman prepare a paper, 
to be submitted on Monday next, on that subject ; when the 
Committee adjourned to meet on that day at 2 o'clock, P. M. 



Monday, May 2, 1859. 

The Prudential Committee met, according to adjournment. — • 
Present, as on Saturday, with the addition of Messrs. Moore and 
Jackson ; ^^hen the Chairman submitted the following paper of 
report, which being read, after discussion, on motion of H. 
Cobb, it was 

Resolvedj That the Chairman be requested to submit the 
same by letter to each member of the Board of Trustees, with 
a view of affording them an opportunity of considering its 
suggestions, in advance of the Annual Meeting next; and 
the members of this committee being unanimous in the opin- 
ion that the fire-proof three-story building, heretofore contem- 
plated by the Board of Trustees, should at once be built, ear- 
nestly request an early and a favorable reply to that portion of 
the Report. 

Ordered, that these minutes and the Report of the Chairmatj 
be printed. Adjourned. 

WM, L. MITCHELL, Chairman. 



n 



THE REPORT. 



Iii riew of the resignation of Dr. Church, which goes into ef- 
fect on the first day of next January, and the necessity of pre- 
senting the University of Georgia to the people of the State in 
a manner and with an organization calculated to command the 
confidence of the public ; and in order that the Trustees of the 
College may have time for reflection upon a subject of vast prac- 
tical importance, and of suggesting amendments thereto, the 
following Programme of a new and enkiged organization, w^ith- 
in the means at present at command of the Board, is respect- 
fully submitted : 

L 

To establish an Institute, combining all the instruction 
given in a well regulated village Academy and the Freshman 
and Sophomore Classes in College, and having sufficient capac- 
ity to board all its pupils from a distance, and observing such 
constant watchfulness as to secure and protect the morals of its 
pupils, and advance their education as rapidly and as certainly 
as their natural endowments and previous training will admit ; 
in a word, so to organize this lundamental feature of the whole 
programme, that the citizen bringing his son or ward here to be 
trained, will feel that he is as safe or safer than at home, and 
that his mind will certainly be educated. This is the right of 
the citizen, and therefore the duty of the Trustees to secure, if 
practicable. No plan has been suggested that promises so well. 
The effort to advance the age of admission into the Fresh- 
man Class, is deemed impracticable in the present state 
of College education in the United States ; and it seems to 
be generally conceded, that boys, at the tender age of four- 
teen or fifteen, are unfit to be left to themselves, as they are in 
a great measure, under the present College regimen in the 



(Jnited Stales; and that the foundation of failure, if not of ruiR',- 
is laid in the Freshman and Sophomore years of College life — 
a result that might be anticipated if we had no experienc^r on 
the subject. And hence, the scheme submitted, contemplates 
the abolishing of the Freshman and Sophomore classes, and 
having them instructed in the Institute herein contemplated, and 
there to remain and be watched over night and day, till fully 
prepared for the Junior Class, which each pupil of the Institute' 
should be allowed to enter' without examination by the College 
Faculty, upon the certificate of the Faculty of the Institute. — 
The Institute should be conducted upon the self-sustaining prin- 
ciple, which it is believed can be done from the start, and tha^ 
soon it would yisld a surplus, after amply paying its Faculty. — 
A. suitable location within thfe corporate limits of Athens, and 
yet sufficiently isolated, can be procured. It has been suggest- 
ed that the Institute might be properly ranked as a Gymnasium*' 

IL 

To estabHsh a College proper, with only Junior and Se- 
nior Classes, each of one year's duration as at present, with the-' 
same curriculum as now prescribed, except that these Classes- 
might be relieved of aiew studies that more properly belong tO'* 
the University Schools hereafter to be mentioned ; and that 
more time might thus be given to the seven liberal Arts and 
Sciences which are regarded as the true training studies for the 
yoi thful mind ; as, for example, the Law of Nations might very 
properly be turned over to the Law School ; the Professorship of 
Agriculture taken out of the College proper, and made to con- 
constitute one of the University Schools. Thus the students of 
the College proper, would be adva-nced in age and education 
so far as to realise the responsibilities of their position, and be 
very suitable subjects for that species of government existing in 
the Colleges of the United States, and have their characters 
sufficiently formed to insure well-grounded hopes of their suc- 
cess in study, and the maintainance of good morals. For effi- 
cient instruction in the College proper, there would be needed 
the President of the Universtty and four Professors. The Pres- 



lUent, howeyer, should not be confined to the business of in- 
struction. As the head of the Board of Trustees, his energies 
should be given to the general advancement of all the depart- 
ments of the Institution; to intercourse with the public; to the 
entertainment of visitors; in a word, to all the external relations 
of the Institution — keeping it before the public, and promoting 
its interests by all the means naturally suggested to one vi'ho un- 
dertakes the office as a labor of love — and none other is fit for 
a post so high, so honorable and so useful. 

To sustain the College proper, there must be an income suf- 
ficient to pay the President and four Professors. But more of 
this hereafter. 

m. 

To establish University Schools, each independent of the 
other, and also of the College proper, so far as such schools 
can be made self-sustaining ; and under this division of the 
Programme may be suggested — 

(1.) The Medical College of Georgia, located in the city of 
Augusta, which Institution is wilUng to be incorporated with 
the University of Georgia, upon the following terms, specified 
in the letter of Dr. Joseph Jones, and which is as follows : 

Augusta, April 21, 1859. 

William L. Mitchell, Esq. — Athens, Ga. : 

My Dear Sir: — ^In accordance with your request, I laid 
your proposition to connect the Medical College of Georgia with 
the University of Georgia, before the Board of Trustees and 
Faculty of the Medical College of Georgia. 

The Trustees and officers of the Medical College of Georgia 
received your proposition favorably, and have authorized me to 
state, that the following terms will be the basis of the contem- 
plated union of the Medical College of Georgia with the State 
University. 

1. The Faculty of the Medical College shall constitute a 
Prudential Committee for the Government of the College, and 



for the preservation of the College buildings, apparatus, and 
museum, and for the regulation of its internal polity. 

2. In filling any vacancy which may occur in the Faculty of 
the Medical College, or any new Professorship which may be 
hereafter created, the Faculty shall have the right of nomination. 

3. No new Professorship shall be created without the consent 
of the Faculty, or without their recommendation. 

4. No changes shall be made in the times or length of the 
courses, or in the number of the Lectures, except upon the re- 
commendation of the Faculty. 

The Faculty of the Medical College shall be the exclusive 
judges of the qualifications of candidates for graduation, and 
shall have the privilege of conferring the degree of M. D. up* 
on such persons as they may select. 

6. The Officers of the Medical College shall be supported by 
the sale of their lecture tickets, and shall have no claim upon 
the present endowment of the University of Georgia. 

7. The whole College property, Buildings, Apparatus, Librae 
ry and Museum, which has cost the Faculty sixty-five thousand 
dollars, ($65,000) will be transferred by the Board of Trustees 
and Faculty ot the Medical College of Georgia, to the Univer-. 
sity of Georgia. 

These terms will give you something definite, upon which to 
base your plans * without doubt more definite legislation will be 
needed. 

The Board of Trustees and the Faculty of the Medical Col- 
lege of Georgia, desire a free interchange of opinions, with the 
Board of Trustees of the University of Georgia. It will give 
them pleasure to receive your own ideas and plans. Several 
of the Trustees of the Medical College of Georgia, are under 
the impression that by the Charter of the University of Georgia, 
the Board of Trustees have the power to found or adopt Schools 
of Medicine, Law or Divinity. If this opinion be correct, the 
union might be consummated without State legislation? 



I feel confident that you will consider these terms both lib- 
eral and just. With kindest regards, I remain, 

Very Respectfully, 

JOSEPH JONES. 

This connexion, if consummated, would enable us to procure 
for the Schools of applied science hereafter named, professors 
or Lecturers who being employed in the Medical school but four 
months in Winter, would find it their interest to employ some 
months in each year at Athens. Some of them are willing to 
undertake the labors without other compensation than the sale 
of tickets. Through their influence also, and the advantages 
afforded, we may confidently hope to attract students of medi- 
cine to prosecute kindred branches of science during the Sum- 
mer months in these schools, 

(2.) A Law School : with three Professors, having terms of at 
least eight months in each year, in which facilities for the best le- 
gal Education shall be offered. Gentlemen highly competent, and 
well-known to the public are ready to undertake this department 
looking only to the fees for remuneration. 

(3.) A n Agricultural School ; the foundation for which has been 
laid by the donation of the late Dr. Terrell, and which so far as 
Lectures upon Agriculture are concerned will be free to the 
public, with which w^e propose to combine a school for the ap- 
plication of Chemistry to the Industrial Arts, thus furnishing 
full employment to that Professor, with adequate compensation 
for increased labors. 

(4.) A School of Civil Engineering and applied Mathematics : 
the Professor to be paid in part from the Treasury of the Uni- 
versity, unt J, as we may hope from the practical nature of this 
department, and its great value to a state rapidly developing its 
physical capacities, it shall become self-sustaining. 

For the establishment of all these highly important and use- 
ful departments of a University, we have abundant means with 
our present income. If as we believe, the system should prove 
efficient in its workings, and an increasing patronage, State ap- 
propriations or individual liberality, shall enable us to do so, we 
can enlarge its usefulness by the addition of a Commercial 



10 

School for the instruction of our youn^ men in the great princi- 
pies and history of Trade, the channels of Foreign Commerce, 
the duties of Merchants. And finally any other Schools for in- 
struction in any Branch of Uuseful Knowledge that will sustain 
themselves, 

IV. 

Another feature contemplated in the scheme, is the establish- 
ment of Scholarships, by persons making their last wills and 
testaments, in terms of the Act of the Legislature, entitled 
' An Act to encourage persons making a will, to provide a per- 
manent fund, for the Collegiate preparation and education ofin- 
digent boys or young men.'' Assented to, December 22, 1857, 
and to be found in the Pamphlet of that year, p. 11, 12. It 
will be observed upon examining this Act, that the testator or 
donor can fix the Collegiate or educational advowson at plea- 
sure, so that the State holding the fund and paying the interest 
semi-annually, her bond for the principal may be held by the 
Trustees of the University, and the interest applied to the edu- 
cation of such indigent boy or young man as may be presented 
for its benefit by the son or daughter of the testator or donor, 
and so the advowson pass from father to son, by will, and thus 
liberal education be secured to the indigent descendants of de- 
cayed families, and the cause of sound learning be promoted. — 
A proper sum for the establishment of such a Scholarship, w-ould 
be five thousand dollars. 

And another feature, kindred to the above, is the establish- 
ment of Fellowships, by persons of wealth — the Fellows to be 
elected by the different Colleges of the State, in whom the right 
of presentation may be vested by the founder, and be taken 
from its graduating class by the College enjoying such right. — 
These Fellows wull attend such of the University Schools as 
they may desire, and enjoy such advantages for the promotion 
of learning and knowledge, as they may find established here. 
And here they may fully prepare themselves to discharge the 
duties of Professors in College. It would require ail of ten 
thousand dollars to found a Fellowship. This feature would 
form a link between us and all other Colleges. 



11 

And lastly, in this feature, it is believed thatjthe Trustees and 
the friends of the Institution, by such influences as they may 
enjoy, can, from time to time, induce persons of great wealth 
to endow Professorships in the College proper, Schools in the 
University, and appropriate a'part of their riches to advance a 
high civilization in our State, in all practicable ways. 

V. 

The Honors to be established for the foregoing enlargement 
of our Institution, may be designated as follows : 

(I.) A certificate of the successful prosecution of all the stu- 
dies in the Institute, signed by its Faculty, to enable the holder 
to admission into the Junior Class of the College proper, with* 
out examination. 

(2.) A Diploma of Bachelor of Arts, to each student who 
passes successfully through the College proper, signed by the 
Faculty. 

(3.) The Degree of Master of Arts to all graduates of this 
or other Colleges of three years standing, and of good moral 
character, or to such graduates as have passed a year in the 
University Schools, and maintained good morals. 

(4.) The Degree of Bachelor of Law, to all Law Students 
who have attended the Lectures of the Professors, and secured 
their approbation. It is contemplated to ask the Legislature to 
pass a law, authorizing and requiring the Clerk of any Supe- 
rior Court, or of the Supreme Court, to issue a license to plead 
and practice law, as now done upon examinaHon, by the presen- 
tation of the Diploma, without examination, upon the payment 
of the usual fee. 

(5.) The Degree of Doctor of Medicine, by the Medical Fac- 
ulty, as now practised. 



12 



(6.) The Degree of Doctor of Philosophy to such Students 
in the University Schools as shall spend two years therein, and 
become proficient in at least three of the Schools. 

(7.) The Degree of Doctor of Divinity is to be conferred only 
upon eminent Divines, 

(8.) The Degree of Doctor of Laws is to be conferred upon 
men of eminence, and as the highest literary honor in our pow-: 
er to bestow. 

VI. 

It is believed that much, if not all of the foregoing Pro-- 
gramme, can be carried into successful operation. Certainly 
all, except some of the University Schools, can be accomplished 
within present means, which we proceed to submit, We have 
Bank stock, pledged by the State to yield— $8,000 

Tuition of 60 Students, in College proper, 3,000 

Eents of Professor's Houses, 1,000 



$12,000 



Expenses of College Proper:—^ 

President's Salary, $2,500 

Four Professors do. 8,000 

Secretary and Treasurer^ 500 

Contingencies, 1,000 



$12,000 



The above estimates of income are placed at the lowest fig- 
ure. We are satisfied that the Bank Stock may be relied upon 
to yield $10,000 for some years to come ; that the number of 
students will exceed sixty before the end of the first year alter 
the programme goes into operation ; and hence, we consider the 
support of the College proper provided for as above specified. 
Then the Medical College is also provided for in Augusta. 



13 

The Law School will probably be furnished the use of Judge 
Lumpkin's and Mr. T. R. R. Cobb's valuable Libraries, and 
this part of the University will be self-sustaining. 

The Agricultural School, is already partially endowed, and 
with that endowment, by Dr. Terrell, can maintain itself. 

Now the Institute, with its three Professors ; the College 
proper, with the President of the whole, and its four Professors ; 
the Medical College, with its eight Professors ; the Law School 
with its three Professors ; and the Agricultural School and its 
one Professor, will present an array of twenty Professors in the 
Annual Catalogue ; and exhibit the University of Georgia before 
the public in an attitude altogether desirable. So far, everything 
is clear. But to have the Institute andthese University Schools, 
we must have buildings and other property ; and the question 
arises, where is the money to come from to do this ? 

We reply, we have in Bonds and Notes, about $33,600 
And that we can save from income this year, about 3,000 



Making the sum of $36,600 

Which we propose to apply to the erection of a fire-proof three 
story building, one story of which is to be appropriated to Li-= 
braries, one story to the Museum, and one story to Lecture 
Rooms for the Law School, the Agricultural School, and the 
other University Schools mentioned above, as the same may 
come into existence from time to time, together with such extra 
Lectures by Professors Extraordinary as we may be able to se- 
cure ; and wp know we can procure a Professor Extraordinary 
on Natural Theology for the Lecture Tickets; and probably 
others upon similar terms, upon Physiology, Comparative Anato- 
my and Zoology, and other branches of Natural Science. The 
four College Professors in the College proper, might be employ- 
ed also in the University Schools, and especially at the begin- 
ninsr. 



14 

To the fitting up the old Library building for recitation rooms 
and other College purposes, and to the founding the Institute 
above contemplated. 

The building, fire-proof, tor library purposes, &c., will cost 
not exceeding $15,000 ; and we ask your consent to make a 
contract at once for such a building, for the reason that the brick 
must be made, and the walls put up and covered before winter, 
or we lose a year ; and this is a building highly desirable, even 
if we make no change in our organization. 

The proper grounds and buildings for the Institute, will cost 
not exceeding the sum of $20,000. So that it will be seen 
that, with the means now at command, we can put in operation, 
independent of State aid, a scheme far beyond anything yet at- 
tempted at the South— a scheme which promises to elevate the 
professions of Law and Medicine ; to enlarge the boundaries of 
knowledge among our people, to develop the vast physical re- 
sources of our State ; and above all, to protect that most critical 
period of a boy's life, lying between his fourteenth and eigh- 
teenth year. This Programme is presented for your serious re- 
flection, and for your action at our next stated meeting m Au- 
gust ; only, we greatly desire your assent in reply by letter, ad- 
dressed to Hon. AsburyHull, the Secretary, to so much of what 
is said above, in relation, to the fire-proof three story building. 

No attempt has been made to present the arguments in favor 
of this Programme, or to answer objections — the object being 
clearly to present the scheme, for your unbiassed judgment. 

By order of the Prudential Committee. 

WM. L. MITCHELL, Chairman, 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS %i 

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